Middle Village charter school to open this fall

MVP will be housed in an area of Christ the King that is currently unoccupied.

Middle schoolers are making the jump to Christ the King’s campus quicker than before — through a new charter school set to open this September.

Middle Village Preparatory (MVP) Charter School received approval January 1 to open its doors this fall to 120 sixth grade students, and will offer an expansive middle school education as well as alleviate overcrowding in the district.

“The last two years, [opening the school] is something that we have really focused on,” said Michael Michel, president of Christ the King Regional High School and the founder of MVP.

MVP will be housed in an area of Christ the King that is currently unoccupied — roughly a 50,000-square-foot section reserved for a new administration and students.

Michel and the founding board are currently searching for a principal for the new charter school and also for a Director of Operations. By the middle of February, applications will be sent to fifth grade students in District 24, urging them to spend their next year at MVP. If 120 students don’t apply, admission will open up to the entire city, and by April, the student body will be selected.

“Families should have a choice. We have good public schools, we have good private schools, but there’s only one charter school in the district,” said Michel.

The 120 selected students will then advance to the seventh grade, and a new 120 students will be selected for the sixth grade, and so on, until a 360-student middle school forms by 2015.

MVP’s mission is already set, and aims to have more individual and focused education for its students with longer school days and an extended year. Subjects such as Latin will be a requirement, and math and English will have double the amount of customary instruction time.